Ionospheric anomaly before the 2011 Tohoku Mw 9.0 earthquake

Using Computerized Ionospheric Tomography （CIT） in combination with GPS observations from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China （CMONOC）, this study reconstructed the electron density distributions over China before the 2011 Tohoku Mw 9.0 earthquake and discovered a prominent ionospheric anomaly on March 8, 2011. Analysis of the solar-terrestrial space environment around the time of the Tohoku earthquake indicated that the March 8 ionospheric anomaly was likely related to the earthquake. Finally, the paper discusses the drift of the ionospheric anomaly, which was inferred from the anomaly being observed by GPS reference sites in China.

Analysis of ionospheric anomaly preceding the Mw7.3 Yutian earthquake

On February 12,2014,a large Mw7. 3 earthquake occurred in Yutian of Xijiang Province,China.We processed the global ionosphere maps provided by CODE（ the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe）and the foF2（ the critical frequency of F2-layer） data of Chongqing ionosonde station to analyze the preearthquake ionospheric anomalies. Solar activities and magnetic storm were checked by the sliding inter quartile range method to remove their effects on the ionosphere. A positive ionospheric anomaly with the large amplitude of 20 TECU was observed near the epicenter on February 3（ 10th day before the earthquake）. In addition,the foF2 at Chongqing station had an unusual increase of more than 40% on the day,which was consistent with the TEC（ Total Electron Content） anomaly. The global disturbance represents that the peak of TEC anomaly didn’t coincide with the vertical projection of epicenter. The TEC anomalous area was closer to the equator,and it mainly occurred from local time 16 ∶ 00 to 20 ∶ 00. An enhancement of TEC with the small amplitude also appeared in the magnetically conjugated region.

Ionospheric VTEC anomalies before Ms7.1 Yushu earthquake

Vertical total electron content is examined to check whether the Ms7.1 Yushu earthquake on April 14, 2010, may have caused any anomalous ionospheric changes. The result shows two TEC increases over the epicenter vicinity on April 1 and 5; these anomalies drifted from east to west, the latter across the whole China. The increase on April 5 was probably related to geomagnetic activity, whereas the one on April 1 may pos- sibly be related to the Yushu earthquake.

Capability of TEC correlation Analysis and Deceleration at Propagation Velocities of Medium-Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances: Preseismic Anomalies before the Large Earthquakes

Data analysis method (CRA, hereafter) to correlate multiple TEC anomaly signals has detected pre-seismic anomalies before the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Iwata & Umeno 2016), the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (Iwata & Umeno 2017) and the 2016 Tainan earthquake (Goto et al. 2019). However, a critical argument said that those anomalies detected by CRA would not be pre-seismic anomalies published by Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics (126), 2021 (JGR-SP (126), hereafter). In this paper, we would point out its incorrect use of statistical anomalies in evaluating CRA as the following points: CRA is shown to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to amplify pre-seismic TEC’s small anomaly signals with synchronizing and correlating multiple GNSS receivers’ data. We proved again that pre-seismic anomalies certainly exist before the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake with additional data analysis. In particular, as a temporal anomaly, deceleration at propagation velocities of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTID, hereafter) before the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake captured by CRA (Iwata & Umeno 2017) is elucidated as pre-seismic anomalies. Furthermore, we proposed a physical model to predict that 35 m/s change at MSTID propagation velocities estimated by TEC’s CRA requires 0.58 × 10-3 V/m electric field in the F Layer ionosphere. Contrary to the claim with the incorrect use of statistical anomalies in JGR-SP (126), TEC’s correlation anomalies detected by CRA (Iwata & Umeno 2016 and Iwata & Umeno 2017) clearly provided supporting evidence that physical pre-seismic anomalies really exist.

Anomalous variations in ionospheric TEC prior to the 2011 Japan Ms9.0 earthquake

The ionospheric total-electron-content （IGS） network and the VTEC data from the GPS （TEC） data provided by the International GNSS Service reference stations of Crustal Movement Observational Network of China（CMONC） were processed and statistically analyzed to search for earthquake-related TEC anomalies prior to the 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan. Preliminary results showed that anomalous variations oc- curred 6 - 11 days and 0 - 4 days prior to the earthquake. After considering solar activity, geomagnetic condi- tions, and proximity in space and time to the earthquake, we tentatively concluded that the anomalous increase on March 5 may be related to the earthquake.

Ionospheric disturbances associated with the 2015 M7.8 Nepal earthquake

Based on the total electron content （TEC） derived from Global Positioning System （GPS） observations of the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China （CMONOC） and the Global Ionosphere Map （GIM） from the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe （CODE）, we detected and analyzed the ionospheric variations during the 2015 M7.8 Nepal earthquake （including the pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies and coseismic ionospheric disturbances （CIDs） following the main shock）. The analysis of vertical total electron content （VTEC） time series shows that the large-scale ionospheric anomalies appeared near the epicenter two days prior to the earthquake. Moreover, the pre-earthcluake ionospheric anomalies were also observed in the geomagnetically conjugated region. In view of solar-terrestrial environment, the pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies could be associated with the Nepal earthquake. In addition, we also detected the CIDs through the high-frequency GPS observation stations. The CIDs had obvious oscillated waveforms with the peak-to-peak disturbance amplitudes of about I TECu and 0.4 TECu, which propagated approximately with the horizontal velocities of 877 ±75 m/s and 319 ± 30 m/s, respectively. The former is triggered directly by the acoustic waves which originated from the energy release of the earthquake near the epicenter, while the latter could be stimulated by the acoustic-gravity waves from the partial transformation of the acoustic waves.

Ionospheric disturbances around the time of the Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake

Variations of Vertical Total Electron Content （VTEC） in the ionosphere are investigated around the time of the MsT. 0 Lushan earthquake. A time-series analysis shows an anomalous VTEC increase 15 days be- fore, as well as some anomalous VTEC decreases 5 days before and 8 hours after the earthquake. Each of these anomalies lasted more than 4 hours and drifted from east to west. The anomalous increase 15 days before the earthquake is significantly larger than the solar-terrestrial background noise, and is thus considered probably related to the earthquake

Influence of annual atmospheric tide asymmetry on annual anomalies of the ionospheric mean state

Through respectively adding June tide and December tide at the low boundary of the GCITEM-IGGCAS model (Global CoupledIonosphere–Thermosphere–Electrodynamics Model, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences), we simulate theinfluence of atmospheric tide on the annual anomalies of the zonal mean state of the ionospheric electron density, and report that thetidal influence varies with latitude, altitude, and solar activity level. Compared with the density driven by the December tide, the June tidemainly increases lower ionospheric electron densities (below roughly the height of 200 km), and decreases electron densities in thehigher ionosphere (above the height of 200 km). In the low-latitude ionosphere, tides affect the equatorial ionization anomaly structure(EIA) in the relative difference of electron density, which suggests that tides affect the equatorial vertical E×B plasma drifts. Although thetide-driven annual anomalies do not vary significantly with the solar flux level in the lower ionosphere, in the higher ionosphere theannual anomalies generally decrease with solar activity.

Temporal and spatial characteristics of VTEC anomalies before Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake

GPS and the COD VTEC data were studied in search of ionospheric VTEC changes in space and time that might be associated with the Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake on 12 May,2008. The result shows several significant anomalous decreases at 12：00 UT- 16：00 UT on April 29 and an anomalously increase at 14：00 UT - 18：00 UT on May 9. The anomalies had two humps, that were located on both sides of the geomagnetic equator and had a tendency of drifting towards the equator. Since the observed anomalies cannot be attributed to any other causes and since they occurred close to the time of the earthquake, we consider them to be possibly premonitory to the earthquake.

Pre-Earthquake Ionospheric Anomalies of the Wenchuan Earthquake Studied with DEMETER Satellite

The pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies in Wenchuan,China(21°-41°N,93°-113°E)are studied and analyzed using the summer nighttime data from 2005 to 2008 measured by DEMETER(Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emission Transmitted from Earthquake Regions)satellite detectors ICE(Internet Communications Engine),IAP(In Application Programming),and ISL(Interior Switching Link).In this paper,we take the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake as an example,use the spatial gridding method to construct the background field over the epicenter,analyze the background characteristics of very low frequency(VLF)electric field components,low-energy particle parameters,and plasma parameters,and define the perturbation intensity index of each parameter before the earthquake to extract each parameter anomaly in both space and time dimensions.The results show that the background values of some ionospheric parameters in the Wenchuan area are related to spatial distribution.Moreover,anomalous enhancement of low-frequency electric field power spectral density,H+concentration,He+concentration and ion concentration with different intensities and anomalous weakening of ion temperature were extracted in the fifteen days before the Wenchuan earthquake.After filtering the data to exclude external interference,such as solar activity,this paper concludes that there is some connection between these anomalies and the Wenchuan earthquake.

Study on ionosphere change over Shandong based from SDCORS in 2012

Temporal and spatial variation of ionosphere can influence our daily communication activities. By solving the one-year global positioning system （GPS） data of Shandong Continuous Operational Reference System （SDCORS） in 2012, we modeled the single-layer spherical harmonic model of vertical total electron content （TEC） over Shandong Province, China, and analyzed the time series of TEC in 2012. The ionosphere over Shandong in 2012 was in the peak year of solar activity. The ionospheric model over Shandong was calibrated and verified using data of the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe （CODE） and the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China （CMONOC）, respectively. The ionosphere is greatly influenced by latitude and solar activity and has the phenomenon of Winter anomaly and semiannual anomaly as well as the session change, diurnal variation, monthly change and seasonal variations. So we can grasp the regularity of temporal and spatial distribution of ionosphere over Shandong, China.

A Fault-tolerance Estimating Method for Ionosphere Corrections in Satellite Navigation System

Aiming to the reliable estimates of the ionosphere differential corrections for the satellite navigation system in the presence of the ionosphere anomaly, a fault-tolerance estimating method, which is based on the distributed Kalman filtering, is proposed. The method utilizes the parallel sub-filters for estimating the ionosphere differential corrections. Meanwhile, an infinite norm （IN） method is proposed for the detection of the ionosphere irregularity in the filter processing. Once the anomaly is detected, the sub-filter contaminated by the anomaly measurements will be excluded to ensure the reliability of the estimates. The simulation is conducted to validate the method and the results indicate that the anomaly can be found timely due to the novel fault detection method based on the infinite norm. Because of the parallel sub-filter architecture, the measurements are classified by the spatial distribution so that the ionosphere anomaly can be positioned and excluded more easily. Thus, the method can provide the robust and accurate ionosphere differential corrections.